What If the Lakers Traded for Charles Barkley?

It’s a move that’s distinctly un-Lakerish. James Worthy had been a part of several championship teams and was an excellent fit in any locker room. And, Elden Campbell seemed primed to become a major part of the next great Laker team once he developed. But the opportunity to acquire such a talented player was too great for Jerry West to pass up. So in the middle of the 1991-92 season, he deals Worthy and Campbell to the Sixers for Charles Barkley.
The crude capacity is there for the Lakers. Barkley, Vlade Divac and Byron Scott all fit together flawlessly. A.C. Green got to be distinctly one of the better seat players in ball, however there was still a noteworthy gap on the program at point watch. Fortunately for the Lakers, Barkley spent the mid year of 1992 in Barcelona with a quite decent one that happened to have real binds to the Laker association.Enchantment Johnson didn’t go to the 1992 Olympics proposing to come back to the NBA thereafter. Be that as it may, playing ball again just felt so great. Losing to Michael Jordan in scrimmages pumped his aggressive juices. What’s more, obviously, Barkley just wouldn’t quiets down about it. Johnson needed to concede he had a point. They would be relentless together. So he at long last yields, consenting to come back to the Lakers for the 1992-93 season. Of course, there are a lot of straightforward pundits considering his status as HIV-positive, yet there were no issues at the Olympics and Barkley savagely assaulted any individual who challenged address his new colleague. Both physically and verbally. Indeed, even Karl Malone quieted down inevitably after a couple painstakingly set elbows.

The Magic-Barkley quick break obliterates the group. It takes Johnson a bit to get once again into amusement shape, however once he does the Lakers complete the season with the group’s No. 1 offense. They storm through the Western Conference to gain a Finals matchup with the last group to beat Johnson there: the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan.

The Lakers can’t protect all around ok to stop Jordan. The Bulls win the arrangement in six hard-battled diversions, yet when Jordan resigns shockingly before the 1993-94 season the Lakers all of a sudden have a reasonable way to Barkley’s first title. They joyfully step the West and beat the New York Knicks in six diversions to get Magic Johnson his 6th ring. What’s more, win yet another title the year after to get him to seven. Fulfilled that no cutting edge player could ever get him, Johnson resigns and the Lakers look to re-apparatus around Barkley.

But without Magic on board and after two titles, Barkley falls out of shape and the Lakers flounder. Jerry West tries to re-tool the team by shaving salaries and making a run at Shaquille O’Neal in free agency, but with Barkley on board he just can’t create enough cap space. They have to settle for the slightly cheaper Juwan Howard and the hope that young rookie Kobe Bryant can get up to speed fast enough to be of use before Barkley falls off a cliff entirely. Shaq winds up with the Knicks in New York.

Of course, nobody tops the Bulls for the next four years. Jordan wins three straight with a group led by Scottie Pippen alongside newcomers like Toni Kukoč and Steve Kerr. But he’s so determined to catch Johnson with seven rings that he sticks around on a completely different roster for the lockout-shortened 1999 season. The Bulls lose Scottie Pippen, Kerr, Dennis Rodman and others to free agency. But they strike gold when they acquire Latrell Sprewell on the cheap from Golden State. He fills in for Pippen at small forward, and the Bulls win championship No. 7 against the Spurs to draw Jordan even with Magic. He retires as the unquestioned greatest player of all time.